


shed these lung spires and breathe

by dustofwarfare



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Genre: Don't Take This Too Seriously, M/M, crackish, hanahaki, sephiroth is bad at romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-03-11 06:10:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13518192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dustofwarfare/pseuds/dustofwarfare
Summary: Cloud almost falls beneath his rival's blade, but instead gets a crash-course in flower symbolism.Or: Sephiroth isn't very good at courting, but at least it's better than a sword in his chest.





	shed these lung spires and breathe

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Sefikura Prompt "Hanahaki", a disease which causes someone who is in the throes of unrequited love to cough up flowers. Obviously I couldn't resist this one. 
> 
> (The flower meanings are all real, but I made up most of the flowers because artistic license and I wanted to.) 
> 
> Don't take this too seriously, but it was fun to write :D 
> 
> Title from the Brown Bird song _Seven Hells_.

“Cloud,” Sephiroth purrs, standing triumphantly over him, Masamune raised over his shoulder to deliver the killing blow. “And now it is time for you to go to the dark – and unlike me, I don’t think you’ll return. Sleep well, my hated enemy.”

Cloud is aching, tired from the fight and in so much pain, he thinks that he needs to get up, to fight, but his arm is broken, his ankle, and the darkness is there, _right there_ , and he wants to fight so badly but it’s too much, this is it, the end and Sephiroth is going to kill him, triumphant and taking his time about it – making him suffer, and Cloud braces himself for the blow and thinks at least it will stop hurting, at least it will be over, he’ll see Aerith and Zack –

He raises his chin and fixes Sephiroth with a defiant look, fingers reaching for his blade even as the pain makes him dizzy and sick. He will have his sword in his hand when he dies. He will leave the world fighting.

Sephiroth opens his mouth, likely to mock him for the attempt at fighting back….but then Sephiroth begins to cough, great gasping hulking coughs wracking his muscular frame and something begins to fall all around Cloud like rain. They’re small and black and he thinks for a moment they’re feathers from Sephiroth’s wing, but then he realizes they aren’t feathers, they’re… _flowers._

Cloud stares up at him, watches as Sephiroth steps away from him, still coughing, and the pain is very bad and getting worse, he’s fighting losing consciousness, but he notices as the world tilts and slips that there’s one single red blossom mixed in among the black, and he thinks _huh, I wonder what that means_ as the world goes dark around him.

Cloud wakes up alone where he fell, his injuries healed by a Cure spell and a potion sitting beside him. All around him are a sea of black blooms, save for one single red flower that is resting on top of the potion.

Frowning, Cloud takes the flower in his hand and drinks the potion. He does not know what this means, or why he is alive – he does not know why Sephiroth didn’t kill him when he could have.

The flower is a red carnation.

***

“Do you know what red carnations mean?” he asks Tifa.

“Huh?” Tifa blinks. “Mean, what?”

“Like. Don’t flowers mean things?” Cloud asks, feeling stupid. It’s entirely possible he hallucinated all of that, he was so close to death.

Tifa shrugs. “I’m a business owner, not a florist.” She grins slyly at him. “Who’re you sending flowers to, huh?”

“No one,” Cloud mumbles. Honestly, did she think he would really do that? He can’t even ask attractive men for their numbers. Send flowers. It’s like she’s never met him before.

“Someone gave you flowers, then?” she asks, looking hopeful. “Aw, come on, Cloud! I told you about Barrett!”

“You had to, I saw you kissing,” Cloud reminds her, and she shushes him and blushes a little. He’s glad for them, really. Marlene is over the moon. “It’s…never mind, it’s stupid.”

 Tifa sighs dramatically, used to Cloud’s evasiveness by now. She simply hands him a clean cloth and says, “help me dry some of these glasses, would you?”

Cloud helps her dry the glasses, then he goes online on his computer upstairs and searches for the meaning.

_Red carnation – a symbol of admiration._

Huh.

Cloud wasn’t expecting that, and it really doesn’t answer the question of _why_ Sephiroth gave him the flower. Or what the black petals were, which seemed to be from no flower Cloud could recognize.

Also, there was that whole part where Sephiroth coughed them up.

It had to have been a hallucination. That’s the only explanation.

***

“Look, we’re not doing this until you explain what that flower thing was about. And why you didn’t kill me.” Cloud folds his arms over his chest and glares at Sephiroth. “So talk. Usually I can’t shut you up.”

 “I –” Sephiroth’s mouth shuts quickly and his body makes a strange jerking motion.

Cloud’s eyes widen, and he realizes Sephiroth is trying not to cough. “Again? Seriously, what is _up_ with this?”

Sephiroth’s nostrils flare as he sucks in a breath, and he seems to be fighting for control – only to lose it the second he opens his mouth, coughing and hacking and despite everything it is the ugliest noise Cloud Strife has ever heard his rival make. Even the three times Cloud has killed him, he didn’t sound like that.

The black flower petals pour forth in a deluge.

Mixed in among them is a single whole bloom, dark blue. Cloud’s seen the flower before, but he can’t recall where exactly. And he doesn’t have time to think about it, because Sephiroth is stalking toward him with the flower in his hand.

Cloud draws his sword but he doesn’t need it. Sephiroth still looks angry and he’s _still_ coughing, but he stops in front of Cloud, glaring so hotly it seems like he wants nothing more than to slam his masamune into Cloud’s chest – again – and instead he throws the flower at Cloud’s feet. It’s more adolescent pique than archenemy rage, and Cloud is so shocked he doesn’t know what to do.

Before Cloud can say anything, Sephiroth turns on his heel and stalks off.

Cloud picks up the flower and twirls it in his fingers, watching him go.

***

Cloud researches the flower and learns it is a type of lily that grows near Costa Del Sol. White Costa Lilies, which are pretty, delicate flowers edged with pink, are popular wedding flowers. They are supposed to symbolize hope for the future.  

Blue ones, like the one Sephiroth…produced, for him…are supposed to mean _forever mine._

What the actual fuck is going on?

***

“Have you ever heard of someone coughing up flowers?” Cloud asks Reeve.

“You mean if they’re poisonous and they try to eat them?” Reeve asks, glancing over at him.

“No, like…” Cloud waves a hand. “Just coughing. And then. There are flowers.”

“You sleeping all right, Cloud?” Reeve looks concerned.  

Cloud slouches down in his seat. “Never mind.”

***

“You really have to either explain this or stop showing up,” Cloud says.

He’s a few miles outside of Junon, on his way to make a delivery. Sephiroth is waiting on high grassy plains, his sword glinting in the sun, his long silver hair gently undulating in the breeze.

The second Cloud stops his motorcycle, the coughing starts.

“You admire me and I’m always yours?” Cloud says, when Sephiroth’s response to his initial question is to…cough up more flowers. “Are you trying to tell me something?”

Sephiroth’s masamune slashes in the air. A large white bloom is impaled on the tip of the sword. It’s white, and Cloud knows the flower well – it’s a Nibelheim winter gardenia.

He’s holding it out to Cloud, who frowns and reaches for it when it’s apparent that’s what he’s supposed to do. Nibelheim winter gardenias grow in the snow, and they’ve been used for centuries as bouquets for the dead. Cloud raises his eyebrows as he rubs the petals between his fingers. “In all the years I’ve been fighting you, this is the weirdest thing you’ve done. Including telling me you’re going to travel the cosmos on the husk of a planet because your alien mom told you to.”

Sephiroth leaves amidst a flurry of black petals.

***

Cloud keeps the flower. He hasn’t seen one in a long time. It makes him think about his mother, and it makes him very, very angry.

***

Cloud takes the Nibelheim winter gardenia to Aerith’s church. He’s trying to get over things like rage and guilt and sorrow, so he puts the flower in the water and watches it bob around in the gentle waves. He wonders if the water will work some magic on the bloom; he wonders if he’s just contaminated Aerith’s pool of holy water with something Sephiroth gave him.

The flower doesn’t do anything in the water but float, and the water looks the same as ever.

“What a pretty flower,” a woman next to him exclaims. “Is that a snow gardenia? I haven’t seen one of those in years.”

“It’s a flower for the dead,” Cloud says, flatly. _It’s a reminder that Sephiroth kills the things I love._

The woman nods. “Do you know why they use it as one? I learned this in school and thought it was so neat.”

Cloud doesn’t know, and he says as much.

“Well, they say it’s because the flower grows in the snow, in these inhospitable mountains. So it’s used as a sign for respect for the deceased, for living in these horrible conditions and having a life despite the hardships. It’s a sign of respect that life flourishes in death, and that death doesn’t make you weak.”

Cloud stares at her so long the woman is clearly uncomfortable, and she hurries off before he can explain that he’s not a creepy serial killer, he just doesn’t understand why his archnemesis seems to be courting him with flowers he’s apparently growing in his lungs.

***

Cloud doesn’t have a lot of money and he’s never been one to care about that kind of thing; monetary wealth holds little to no appeal. He has a lifetime Golden Saucer ticket, a badass sword and a motorcycle, and those are the only things he’s spent any significant amount of money on in his life.

But he does shell out some gil for a small house on the coast, thirty or so miles away from Junon on an uninhabited inlet. It’s something he can work on and fix up, it’s quiet, it’s a place to escape when he needs to. He’s there for a few weeks working on a chocobo enclosure when he feels that electric awareness break over him, that same feeling that makes birds quiet before a storm and causes animals to hide before an earthquake.

“The coughing really ruins your sneak attack,” Cloud says, hammering at the post. He turns to face his longtime nemesis, aware he doesn’t have his sword but not too worried about it. Apparently killing each other isn’t what they do, anymore.

Sephiroth looks….annoyed. He is clearly trying to say something, but all that happens is a long, involved coughing fit that, once again, produces the fluttering black petals. It’s kind of surreally pretty, if you can ignore the sound he’s making while he does it.

The flower that isn’t black this time is orange. It also has some purple things poking out of it, and Cloud thinks it looks sort of evil. That’s fitting.

Sephiroth doesn’t present the flower to him this time. He just stands there, scowling, until Cloud picks it up on his own.

***

The flower is a rare type of tansy that grows near the Mythril Mines, and the meaning, according the website Cloud has now bookmarked, is _hostile thoughts._

Cloud’s pretty sure this isn’t how giving flowers to someone is supposed to work, but then again – no one’s ever given him any before. So who knows.

***

A few days later, Cloud is back in Edge, catching up and having a drink at Seventh Heaven. Yuffie’s in town, and Cloud does a double-take when he catches sight of her t-shirt after she bounces away from her exuberant hello-hug.

The writing is in Wutain so Cloud doesn’t know what it says, but the graphic is a person….throwing up a mouthful of flowers. These are pink and white and orange and teal, not black. But still. The coincidence is a bit staggering.

“Hey, Strife, I didn’t think you swung this way,” Yuffie says, eyebrows raised. “And you’re kinda like my brother, no offense. So knock off the staring or I’ll knock your head off, ‘kay?”

“No, it’s…um, your shirt,” Cloud says, blushing a little and waving vaguely at the design.

“Oh! You like Hanahaki? I had no idea you were into W-Pop!” Yuffie beams.

Cloud blinks at her several times in a row, at sea. “I dunno what any of those words you just said mean, Yuffie.”

She giggles and bumps him with her shoulder. “It’s a Wutain pop band, Hanahaki. That’s what the words say.”

“The flower thing,” says Cloud, gesturing again. “Er. The guy is coughing up flowers.”   

“Yeah, that’s what Hanahaki is,” she explains. “It’s al old Wutain legend, about this evil warrior who suffered an unrequited love and was cursed to cough up flowers whenever he was around the person he was in love with. There’s this saying in Wutain about loving someone who doesn’t feel the same, like…a colloquialism, I guess? ‘I’ve coughed up flowers for her’ or something like that. Anyway, the band took the name and like, it’s super gross but cool, sometimes in their shows the lead singer does this thing where he--”

Cloud loses track of the rest of what she’s saying.

Unrequited _love_?

No.

There must be some mistake.

***

A quick search of Hanahaki brings up mostly info about Yuffie’s favorite band, but there are a few links to myths and illustrations of the legend.

Supposedly the story revolves around a fearsome Wutain warrior who knew no mercy or kindness, and fell in love with a beautiful princess who wept at the very sight of blood. The warrior knew nothing of tender feelings or love, and every time he tried to speak kindly to the princess to try and win her affections, he scared her away.

The legend has several variations, at that point; some say the warrior took a magic potion that was supposed to help him speak the language of love, hence coughing the flowers. Some say he asked for guidance but wasn’t specific enough about his request and ended up with the floral affliction. But the most common is that the warrior approached the king and asked for his daughter’s hand, but the king hated the warrior and didn’t want him as a son-in-law, so he somehow tricked the warrior into swallowing seeds to prove his love. Somehow.

It’s all clearly meant as a morality tale to learn how to be a decent human being _before_ you want something from someone, maybe? Cloud’s not sure but that seems the most likely explanation.

Except for the whole thing where Sephiroth was the one coughing up flowers in front of Cloud, because…it didn’t make any _sense._

Cloud listens to some of Hanahaki’s music. It’s pretty catchy, even if he doesn’t know any of the words.

***

Cloud is finishing the chocobo pen when Sephiroth next appears. He stares at him, then shrugs and says, “I could use some help hammering the posts down there. If you’re not trying to talk to me, maybe you’ll stop throwing up flowers.”

Sephiroth’s eyes gleam with suppressed murder, but he marches off like – well, like a soldier – to the far side of the enclosure. He picks up a hammer and starts swinging.

They work in companionable silence until dusk, at which point Cloud walks over and says, “You want some water or something?”

Sephiroth’s response is to cough up a handful of black blossoms and yet another flower – it’s a type that grows just outside Midgar on the plains and is commonly called a “wallflower.”

The meaning, when Cloud looks it up, is _faithfulness in adversity._

Well. Sephiroth is nothing if not a faithful adversary.

***

 “You know, this doesn’t make any sense,” Cloud says, when next Sephiroth appears. “You hate me. You keep trying to kill me. All the flowers you’re sending me are like. Mean.”

Sephiroth is clearly trying not to cough.

Cloud sighs. “Just get it over with and then you can help me with the barn.”

This newest botanical offering is a purple Gongagan flower that Zack used to call a “monster nose” for some unknown reason.

The meaning of the flower is _lasting interest._

Cloud thinks he’s beginning to get the picture. He doesn’t really like it, but he gets it.

***

The next day, he comes back from the market and there’s a note posted to his door.

There’s a profusion of black petals scattered around the doorway like some macabre bridal procession. The note is affixed by the masamune, and at the center is a blood red rose.

The note reads:

_You are the only one worthy of my eternal enmity._

_-S_

Cloud laughs helplessly and takes the masamune from the door, resting the blade on the side of the house. He goes inside and puts the rose in a small bowl of water.

Then he puts on some tea, and waits.

When he feels that electric-shock awareness shudder through him like a storm, he says, “You might as well come in and have some tea.”

Sephiroth’s cough echoes through the house.


End file.
